Brighton Music Conference

On April 28th, I attended a music conference in Brighton as part of a trip. On this trip, there was a wide variety of activities which included a demonstration of synthesizers, DJ equipment and digital audio software. This took place in the main hall round that back of the centre. There was stalls hosted by a range of manufacturers including Yamaha, Native Instruments, Cubase and many others. These stalls had the equipment of the manufacturers out for both display and trail-use by visitors. On each (or most, as some were not running as I was there) of these stalls there were demonstrators who would inform us about their product and explain how it worked. One of the pieces of equipment we were shown was the Yamaha HS7. The Yamaha HS7 is a studio monitor which grabbed my attention because I found the sound to be very crisp, though with that said, we were in a giant hall so the acoustics may not be representative as they would be in a studio setup, and the Yamaha demonstrator told me that they were worth around £330 for a pair, which seemed like great value for money. Another piece of kit that caught my eye was the Roland JD-XA Polysynth synthesizer. This synthesizer stood out to me because the sounds it made were really warm, deep and lush, it had a wide range of parameters so that you really could create unique sounds, the feeling of the keys was really nice as they were firm and weighted, but they were still easy to press, the build quality and finish of the product was pristine, and it included it’s own sequencer which meant that you could pretty much use it as a standalone piece of hardware if you really wanted to. Unfortunately however, it was well out of my price range as it was worth £1,500, though with how good it is, I can’t really argue with that price. The last product which caught my attention was the NI Traktor D2 deck. This was because it was far different from any other CDJ/controller/turntable I had ever seen before. It was different in the sense that rather than a jogwheel/platter, you had to control the BPM with a knob, it included 4 different channels for you to upload stems of tracks, or even just samples in general, and it even included it’s own fader for each stem track along with 2 effects pads per stem track. This appealed to me even as a DJ who prefers the traditional, original 2 vinyl turntables, though I cannot see myself ever replacing turntables with this type of setup, but it does seem like a good stepping stone for the DJ who wants to move on to live performances.

One of the seminars I attended included the producer/DJ Throwing Shade, PRS manager Andy Ellis, publishing manager Jarrod Bird and programme manager Bhavash Patel. Their talk ultimately regarded making money from music. They talked to us about setting a personal timetable as an artist, in which they recommend that you plan a designated time-slot which you spend responding and sending emails to people that work with you once per week to ensure that you are up to date and informed with the legal side of your music (PRS, publisher’s rights, track sales etc). Throwing Shade spoke about how she became an artist, which was originally simply by making tracks and posting them to Soundcloud which slowly built her a small following, until eventually her music was noticed by well-established Techno DJ/Producer Kassem Mosse who played her tracks. This caused her to make the big decision to quit her oncoming-career as a lawyer and become a full-time musician despite the disapproval of her parents. Her first step as a full-time artist was hosting her own radio show on NTS radio, which inevitably brought her attention from many DJ’s, producers and record labels. This lead to her releasing her first EP, and from there onwards, she was officially an active, independent artist. At the end of their talk, I asked the panel to advise me on what precautions I should take as an artist that is aiming to release my first EP in regards to many small labels which apparently have not paid artists what they are owed; a situation that appears to have fairly often within the music scene that I am involved in, to the point where it’s becoming the standard, and more worryingly, acceptable practice by labels. Throwing Shade responded to my question by saying that whenever I approach or am being approached by labels, I should research the label in question to understand how ‘big’ they actually are (how much money they’re likely drawing), and to then respond to that research by setting out boundaries to the labels with what you will and won’t allow them to do, and what minimum percentage share you would accept to receive, and how many years you will allow them to hold the rights to your music for. She told us a story about how a multi-million-dollar shoe company tried to pay her with a pair of trainers for using her music,  and how she talked them into paying her a considerable amount of money, as well as how a label offered to hold the rights to her music for 10 years where she talked it down to 3 to display the importance of setting boundaries. She also said that all negotiations with labels should be documented; either digitally or in print so that the label by law has to follow the rules you set out or else face large fines and even imprisonment should they ever try to manipulate you to your disadvantage, as it is common for people to be fooled into believing that you can trust labels (even independents) to stick to promise that they made in spoken word.

The second talk was hosted by Chris Goss; owner of Hospital Records along with several members of the label’s publishing/promotional team. He spoke about how he started Hospital Records in 1996 with the intention of releasing Drum n Bass after being involved with Acid-Jazz and Triphop as it was the freshest and most popular genre in London at the time. He mentioned how he booked venues that were of high capacity in relation to his following/size of his label and how that it was incredibly risky, but yet managed to break even. He started the Hospitality night in 2001 which was one of the first Drum n Bass events which focused on lighter, soulful styles of Drum n Bass as opposed to the techy/dark D&B which was popular at the time. He struggled to find venues that would allow D&B nights due to stereotypes of D&B heads being aggressive, taking drugs and other criminal activities, which even to this day still happens. He has hosted one of the largest raves which was Hospitality at Finsbury park.